Let's be boring

A few days back, someone on my technology team pointed me to a website called boringtechnology.club. The "Boring Technology" principle was first advocated by Dan McKinley, a software engineer and former Etsy employee. McKinley, a software engineer and former Etsy employee, introduced the concept of "Choose Boring Technology" in a blog post that gained popularity in the tech industry. The core idea is that when building systems or making technological choices, it's often better to opt for well-established, proven technologies rather than always chasing the latest, trendiest options.

A key element of McKinley's essay is the idea of 'innovation tokens'" which he describes as a limited resource that organisations should spend wisely. In the context of technology choices, McKinley suggests that companies have a finite capacity for innovation and should, therefore, be selective about where they choose to be cutting-edge. If a company uses up some of its innovation tokens in trying out a glamorous new technology which is not tried and tested widely, then it will have fewer resources left for innovation in its business domain and in serving its customers.

As McKinley puts it, "If you think about innovation as a scarce resource, it starts to make less sense to also be on the front lines of innovating on databases. Or on programming paradigms. The point isn't that these things can't work. Of course, they can work. And there are many examples of them actually working. But software that's been around longer tends to need less care and feeding than software that just came out,"

He goes on to explain why he uses the word 'boring', "What counts as boring? That's a little tricky. 'Boring' should not be conflated with 'bad.' There is technology out there that is both boring and bad. You should not use any of that. But there are many choices of technology that are boring and good, or at least good enough. MySQL is boring. Postgres is boring. PHP is boring. Python is boring. Memcached is boring. Squid is boring. Cron is boring. The nice thing about boringness (so constrained) is that the capabilities of these things are well understood. But more importantly, their failure modes are well understood."

Now, I'm not a technology person by education, but over the last few decades, I've managed and grown a business which does all its tech in-house, and I understand exactly what this idea signifies. However, beyond that, these ideas transfer perfectly to personal investing. By focusing primarily on well-established investment vehicles like diversified mutual funds or passive funds, investors can build a stable foundation for their portfolios. These are boring choices which have demonstrated their effectiveness over time and typically come with predictable outcomes. Meanwhile, you can spend the limited 'innovation tokens' on other carefully selected alternatives if you put in the effort to understand them.

The Boring Technology principle also brings in the importance of reducing cognitive load, which translates well to personal finance. McKinley comes to the conclusion that the total list of technologies that you use should be as short as possible. This also maps perfectly to investing. What are the boring things that you need to understand to be a successful investor? Diversification, asset allocation, large-cap vs mid-cap etc, cost averaging, and ... actually, that's the minimum list. This is all you NEED.

By sticking to simpler, well-understood investment concepts and strategies, individuals can avoid the stress and potential mistakes that come with constantly chasing the latest investment fads or attempting to time the market. This approach allows investors to focus their energy on other aspects of their financial health, such as actually budgeting, saving, or long-term financial planning, which is the equivalent of companies paying attention to their actual business rather than frivolities.

I don't know whether I've been able to explain this idea effectively, but the Boring Technology concept, when applied to investing, encourages a balanced, thoughtful approach that prioritises consistency and proven methods over chasing the latest thing that claims to be innovation. It suggests that for most investors, a primarily boring portfolio, optionally supplemented with a few well-chosen innovation tokens, is the most effective path to long-term financial success.

Also read: Understand and control